General Hospital Wayback: Remember Patrick Drake

While General Hospital has certainly had its fair share of talented but emotionally stagnated surgeons who are easy on the eyes and a magnet for the ladies, Patrick Drake is certainly one of the most memorable — not only on the ABC serial but in soap opera history as well.

Introduction
With Jason Morgan hoovering near death and in desperate need of a delicate brain operation, Robin Scorpio turned to the best doctor in the field of neurosurgery: Noah Drake. However, Noah had descended into alcoholism and was of no use to anyone. But he did manage to point Robin in the direction of his son, Patrick.

Robin tracked Patrick down – and interrupted his afternoon assignation with a young female nurse. Patrick agreed to accompany Robin back to Port Charles but he initially declined to operate on Jason and only relented because Carly Corinthos – who soon took the doctor to bed – and Sam McColl challenged his abilities as a surgeon.

Physician Heal Thyself
Despite some earlier hostilities, Patrick and Robin began to form a close bond, and she was there to comfort Patrick when he was exposed to HIV while operating on a patient with end-stage AIDS. The first round of tests came back inconclusive, and Patrick feared the worst but a more detailed screening revealed he was HIV negative.

Friends and Lovers
Patrick and Robin began to date – though not exactly on an exclusive basis – and they struggled with their differences of opinion on marriage and family versus a casual love affair. But a one night stand following Georgie Jones’ funeral resulted in a pregnancy for Robin.

At first, she claimed that the pregnancy was a result of artificial insemination but the truth finally came out and Patrick proposed marriage. Their first trip down the aisle was halted by Emma Grace’s birth but the second stab at matrimony was a lock – and Patrick even gained a special best man in the form of Matt Hunter, the brother he never knew existed.

Single White Female
The Scorpio-Drake marriage was a rocky one right from the start – Robin succumbed to post-partum depression, and Patrick was accused of medical malpractice – but they weathered these early storms. But when Robin left for Africa on assignment, Patrick fell into the arms of a former girlfriend, Lisa Niles.

Although Patrick and Robin were able to reconcile, Lisa descended into psychosis and pulled every trick in the book to separate the two up to and including attempted murder. When Lisa was bumped off in a who done it? caper, Patrick was the prime suspect but Matt confessed to the crime.

Absence Makes the Heart Ache
When Robin was presumed dead in an explosion – but was actually being held hostage by Cesar Faison – Patrick eased his guilty conscience by becoming addicted to a hallucinogenic pain killer, and dating both Britt Westbourne and Sabrina Santiago.

Patrick and Sabrina actually wed – bigamously of course – and Robin was there to greet her husband on that festive day. The Drakes reunited and Sabrina tried to conceal the fact that she was carrying Patrick’s baby.

Robin was forced to abandon her family by Victor Cassadine, and Patrick reunited with Sabrina although their baby was lost, thanks to Victor’s violent machinations. When Patrick discovered that Rafe Kovich Jr. was responsible for the accident that killed his baby, he nearly lets the young man die on the operating table and was suspended from GH.

Reunited and It Feels So Good
When Robin was finally free of the Cassadines and able to return home, she, Patrick, and Emma made the decision to move to Berkeley, California. Both Dr. Mr. and Dr. Mrs. Drake were offered jobs at a prestigious hospital there. After settling into their new home, the couple welcomed a son: Noah Robert Scorpio Drake. General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC< Check your local listings for airtimes.